-Livemint.com With barely weeks left for the to begin its retreat, it is emerging that India will close the year with a deficit much higher than what was initially forecast  Another year and another bad monsoon. What were the odds? The India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecast this year’s monsoon—like last year—to be below normal. At that time, we all hoped that the IMD had got it wrong—the economy was on the...

Two recent reports show that this social sector scheme has had a causal impact in improving lives, especially for women and children Fourteen million people escaped falling into poverty under the world’s largest anti-poverty programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). In 10 years of its existence, the scheme reduced poverty by 32 per cent. Recent data also shows that more women are drawing cash incomes, more children...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India has set itself a challenging target to reduce maternal mortality rate to 70 per 1000 live births, and for neonatal and under-five to 12 and 25 per 1,000 births respectively under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved over the next 15 years. The consensus over the new targets was achieved within the government in a recent meeting of the health ministry and other...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India has eliminated maternal and neonatal tetanus. It has been reduced to less than one case per 1000 live births across the country, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has validated adding India to the list of countries that have successfully battled the disease. "This is a huge achievement for India which until a few decades ago reported 150,000 to 200,000 neonatal tetanus cases annually," WHO regional...

-The Times of India RAIPUR: With an aim to provide iron-free drinkable water to natives of Bastar region and provide additional employment scope for women and potters, Chhattisgarh Council of Science and Technology (CGCOST) conducted training for 80 women of self-help groups and potters of Jagdalpur, Narayanpur and Dantewada region to make low cost water-filters. This water filter is an innovative design of Pune-based Tata Consultancy Services developed at Wardha based Center...